This invention relates to experimental management apparatuses and experimental management programs for electroplating, and more particularly to an apparatus, method, and program for electroplating experimental management that serves to carry out an electroplating experiment more efficiently.
Conventionally, a thickness and weight of plating on a resultant plated object obtained through the electroplating experiment are estimated by substituting various parameters into predetermined arithmetic expressions one by one in order to set experimental conditions of the electroplating experiment. The various parameters include the type of a plating solution; a temperature, pH and concentration of the plating solution; a material, surface area and weight of the plated object; the mode of an electric current; an electric current value, electric current density, time of electric charge, integrated electric current value, electric current rate upon electroplating, and the like.
The conventional method manages an electric current value, a voltage value, an integrated electric current value, a solution temperature, a pH value individually using a rectifier, an ampere-hour meter, a thermometer, a pH meter, or the like.
However, according to the conventional method, in order to set experimental conditions of the electroplating experiment, the various parameters have to be substituted one by one into predetermined arithmetic expressions to work out predicted values of the experimental result, and thus much time and labor are required. Therefore, the method for carrying out the electroplating experiment more efficiently has been demanded.
Further, the conventional method manages experimental data for the electroplating experiment individually, and would thus disadvantageously impair the efficiency in managing the experimental data. In particular, in precise electroplating processes for use in ULSI (ultra large-scale integrated) circuit wiring, micromachine production, or the like, an extremely subtle change in the various parameters would affect the plating result greatly, and thus each parameter has to be set precisely. Accordingly, the necessity of efficiently managing the experimental data has been arising to facilitate determination in setting each parameter.
The present invention has been produced to eliminate the above disadvantages, and it is an exemplified object of the present invention to provide an apparatus, method, and program for electroplating experimental management that can carry out an electroplating experiment more efficiently, and can manage experimental data more efficiently.
According to one exemplified aspect of the present invention as set forth in claim 1, there is provided an electroplating experiment management apparatus. The electroplating experiment management apparatus comprises: an input means for inputting experimental conditions; a predicted value calculation data storage means for storing in advance physical property value data and arithmetic expression data usable to work out predicted values of experimental results from the experimental conditions; a predicted value calculation means for working out the predicted values of the experimental results from the experimental conditions using the physical property value data and the arithmetic expression data read out from the predicted value calculation data storage means; an experimental data obtaining means for obtaining experimental data; an experimental data analysis mean for working out experimental data at each point of time during an experiment based upon analysis of the experimental data obtained by the experiment data obtaining means; an experimental data recording means for recording the experimental data; and an output means for outputting the experimental conditions, the predicted values, and the experimental data.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is disclosed an electroplating experiment management method for using a computer to manage an electroplating experiment. The method comprises the steps of: inputting experimental conditions; storing in advance physical property value data and arithmetic expression data usable to work out predicted values of experimental results from the experimental conditions, in a predicted value calculation data storage means; working out the predicted values of the experimental results from the experimental conditions using the physical property value data and the arithmetic expression data read out from the predicted value calculation data storage means; obtaining experimental data; based upon analysis of the experimental data, working out experimental data at each point of time during an experiment; recording the experimental data; and outputting the experimental conditions, the predicted values, and the experimental data. This method may be implemented in the form of a computer program.
According to another aspect of the present invention as set forth in claim 2, there is provided an electroplating experiment management program for managing an electroplating experiment. The electroplating experiment management program allows a computer to operate as: an input means for inputting experimental conditions; a predicted value calculation data storage means for storing in advance physical property value data and arithmetic expression data usable to work out predicted values of experimental results from said experimental conditions; a predicted value calculation means for working out the predicted values of the experimental results from said experimental conditions using the physical property value data and the arithmetic expression data read out from said predicted value calculation data storage means; an experimental data obtaining means for obtaining experimental data; an experimental data analysis mean for working out experimental data at each point of time during an experiment based upon analysis of said experimental data obtained by said experimental data obtaining means; an experimental data recording means for recording said experimental data; and an output means for outputting said experimental conditions, said predicted values, and said experimental data.
Other objects and further features of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments with reference to accompanying drawings.